Philips: We’re Leaving Consumer Electronics Business

Philips has been a household name in the consumer electronics space for as long as we can remember, you may have a DVD player or an old cassette player from the company collecting dust somewhere, but it’s now going to stop making products that populate our living rooms. Philips may not be at the top of your list when you think of big name electronics companies these days, and that’s because other firms such as LG, Samsung and Apple have swung in and gobbled up the firm’s customers.

The company has a long history in the space, though. The Wall Street Journal even pointed out that Philips actually invented the cassette tape back in 1963. It turns out that the company just isn’t making enough money in the consumer electronics industry any more, especially as we’ve turned to streaming services for consuming content.

“Since we have online entertainment, people do not buy Blu-ray and DVD players anymore,” Philips CEO Frans van Houten told The Wall Street Journal. Philips said it will instead begin to push as hard as it can to compete in selling medical technology, a venue in which it saw 4 percent growth during Q4 2012.